PRIME MiINISTER'S SPEECHI AT JTHIIE " TV I-IiKE IT AUSTRALIAN CAMiPATGl
ML'LBOUR.. NE, 26 OCTOBER 1975
You've just seen the man who often represents me
. I'm now speaking in my own right.
Ladies and gentlemen, we've all shown by our
presence tonight that we want to make TV Australian
we've acknowledged in the flesh, directly, the men and
women of talent who can make television Australian.
On behalf of the Australian Government I support their
efforts. But I must confess that it's become much more
difficult to do so than I thought when I pledged'this support
on behalf of my Party three years ago. It's not that
very much hasn't been attempted and quite an amount achieved
but I must mention two particular difficulties we have:
first, of course, it's only in recent years that the
Australian Government has tried to do anything about making
TV Australian. Before John Gorton, who is with us tonight
and except for John Gorton, no other Australian Governments.-
have ever tried to do anything about making television
Australian. And one of the early pleasures I had as head
of the present Government was to bring in-to the House, and
get through both Houses, the statute to establish the
Television School. Then we established a Film, Radio and
Television Board in the Australia Council; and we've
established an Australian Film Commission.
But there is one very long-seated difficulty that
we have in Australia there are too many television
commercial stations; and this stems from the fact that in
the later 1950' s and the early 1960' s the Australian
Government of . the day had to make sure that every one of
the newspaper families got its own two television stations.
And it is very much cheaper to be one of the few hundred
television outlets for television programs made in the United
States or even the-United Kingdom than it is to be one of
the half dozen catering for Australian programs.
With a great number of outlets it's cheaper and therefore
Australian television programs are too expensive, so they say.
And all the newspapers do their best to disparage the
Australian program and they do it under the guise of
telling their viewers that they are entitled to a choice:
they're entitled to the best, and the best -the inference
is comes from overseas.
And then there is one other very great difficulty
that we've found: the laws under which there is supervision
of radio and television in Australia, the Broadcasting and
Television Act, has not given sufficiently clear powers
and durisdiction to the Australian Broadcasting Control
Board. Where it has been possible by administrative action
to improve the Australian Broadcasting Commission or the
Australian Broadcasting Control Board the Government has done
so. The people who work for the A. B. C. now for the first
time have elected somebody themselves to represent them on the
A. B. C. And the Australian Broadcasting Control Board for
years said there were no more channels available and FM was
not possible in Australia. We now know that these were false
statements. But still the Broadcasti c Control. Board can
maLe suggestions and can issue orde( rs and Lhe television
sti. tions can disregard them with impunity.
And twice the House of Representatives has passed amendments
to give the Broadcasting Control Board teeth and twice
the Senate has rejected those amendments. I will Eay
no more about the Senate, of course. But we've done our
best and until the laws are amended, radio and television
in Australia will be handicapped by the lack ofT proper
national power.
Ladies and gentlemen, we've all seen with our
own eyes, and heard with our own ears tonight the extent,
the range, the quality of talent, that there is in Australia
to produce Australian TV programs. And I believe your
voices, your response, to the artists, to the writers, to
the producers, will yeL be heard. Ladies and gentlemen,
we all have to work harder, resolutely, patiently, to see
that Australian talent is not only seen. in Australia, but
identified as Australian around the world. We have made
increasing sums of money available -' 73 Budget, ' 74 Budget,
Budget, when it geLs through. But this is not enough
we must all see , as Australians, that all our resources
are increasingly Australian whether they are material
or human-. And we have a wealth of human material, human
resources in this country, and not least in the performing
arts and in the most modern and pervasive of them all,
television itself. Let us make it Australian.